Banana Coconut Rum Butter

Some recent canning projects: cantaloupe vanilla jam (from the preview of Food in Jars), strawberry rhubarb jam, zucchini relish (from Tart and Sweet)

Cantaloupe vanilla jam (tastes like an orange creamsicle!)

Four pounds of bananas

Ready for some banana rum butter!

Turns out banana butter isn't exceptionally photogenic

Just recently, I've started working my way through some recipes in Tart and Sweet. This weekend I had my heart set on banana rum butter with a twist - rather than the dark rum it called for, I had coconut rum (a gift from a friend who was recently in the Carribean, and while tasty, one that I probably wouldn't make it through for a year). I also didn't have the vanilla bean it called for, but I figured the coconut flavor would more than make up for it.

Of course, I only had two bananas in the house. So as Sunday evening was approaching, and I was putting off running to the store to buy the remaining 3 lbs of bananas I needed, my friend Kayla called and asked out the blue if I had any use for 12 very ripe bananas - the result of her first ever frantic 2 am Amazon fresh order (for anyone who has an infant and a two-year-old, and whose husband is away at a conference for a week, you can probably imagine the situation). "You just made my day!" was my response. Ryan overheard the entire conversation and said "So, you posted something today on Facebook about making banana butter?" But I hadn't! Kayla somehow read my canning vibes from three miles away and knew I needed 3 lbs of browning bananas.

I've never really made fruit butter before, at least not on purpose (I think the applesauce I made last fall is probably more of a fruit butter than a sauce), but it turns out bananas are great because they don't seep juice and as a result they cook down quickly. I somewhat followed the recipe from Tart and Sweet, using about 4 lbs of bananas, about 1 1/3 cup brown sugar (I would probably use a little less next time), 1/4 cup lemon juice, and 1/2 cup coconut rum (the recipe called for dark rum), and 2 tsp vanilla extract. This recipe would be really easy to adjust for a very small batch if you are planning to eat it relatively soon, rather than canning it.

It was a big success. I'm not good at using adjectives to describe food, so I'll just say it's sweet and tasty. I love coconut and banana together. We ate it on [the last of a carton of] ice cream last night. Tomorrow I should go to the store for more...